Cancer-stricken Nunavut man seeks financial help to reunite family

Bradley Ikkutisluk of Gjoa Haven sits in a wheelchair in an Edmonton hospital before undergoing chemotherapy for the blood cancer, leukemia. (PHOTO COURTESY OF B. IKKUTISLUK)

A Gjoa Haven man undergoing treatment for cancer at an Edmonton hospital has turned to online crowdfunding for money to help reunite his family.

Bradley Ikkutisluk says he has hardly seen his two daughters since his two sons got sick in 2012, and ended up hospitalized in Edmonton.

Then in 2014, adding salt to the wound, Ikkutisluk was diagnosed with cancer just as he and his common-law wife Takkiruq Leslie and their sons were ready to go home.

Ikkutisluk, who felt ill, waited 10 hours in a hospital emergency ward only to learn he suffered from leukemia, a blood cancer.

As a result, Ikkutisluk started chemotherapy and has not yet returned home.

“I want my girls to be with us in Edmonton so hoping to get funding, even $5.00 would help. So please donate to us and help us be with our girls.”

Ikkutisluk hopes to raise $5,250 to pay for a security deposit on an apartment in Edmonton and airfare for the two girls to join him and Leslie while he continues to receive chemotherapy to fight his cancer.

Leslie wrote on Facebook that’s it’s been six months since she has seen the girls: “I’m staying strong being with Brad.”

As of the morning of April 13, Ikkutisluk’s GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign had raised $4,250.

Crowdfunding is a way of raising money for a project or venture by soliciting contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Many northerners are turning to online crowdfunding for everything from field trips to hockey tournaments.

GoFundMe, one of several online crowdfunding sites, says its site users have raised more than $790 million.

Many of its success stories involve fundraising for people who are in need of medical treatment or equipment.

GoFundMe takes five per cent of each donation received while the WePay service fee is 2.9 per cent plus $0.30 per donation.

You can see Ikkutisluk’s GoFundMe page here.